Maker: Lynn Dow

Panel number: 335

Petition sheet number: 401

Person honouring: Catherine Strong

Relationship to maker: None

Catherine Agnes Strong signed the suffrage petition in Mangonui, a tiny and remote settlement in Northland.

She signed as K.A. Strong, rather than C.A. Strong, because she was known as Kate. In 1893 she was a boarding house keeper and her husband was a gardener.

Kate was born Catherine Agnes Kelly in about 1864. Opinions differ on whether she was born in Scotland or Ireland, but New Zealand records state it was Ireland.

She married her husband Samuel Edward Harford Strong in 1884 in Sydney and then moved to New Zealand. They had eight children, born between 1886 and 1899 and all in Mangonui. Later they moved to Auckland where they remained.

Three of their boys fought in World War 1; sadly one of them was killed in action in France.

Kate’s family recall she actively campaigned for female suffrage. A family story relates how every election day, Kate would call on all the surrounding neighbours. If the women had not voted, they received a militant “We fought for that vote. Now go out and use it!”.

Catherine Agnes Strong died in 1944 at the grand old age of 80. She was buried at Waikaraka cemetery with her husband.

Panel materials: Cotton fabric and embroidery thread.